Partner · Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Tyrus Thomas. Partner.
A Baton Rouge native who was cut as a 5'10" high school freshman and went fourth overall in the NBA Draft. Founder of The Recruiting Assist and a Partner at Butler Performance, leading its Baton Rouge home base.
Cut, then the Final Four
Tyrus grew up in Baton Rouge and was cut from the McKinley High School varsity as a 5'10" freshman. He kept working, grew to 6'7" by his senior year, and averaged 16 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks to earn all-state second team honors in Louisiana.
At LSU he redshirted his first year, then became one of the most disruptive freshmen in the country in 2005-06: SEC Freshman of the Year and SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Year. In the NCAA Tournament he blocked five shots in the upset of No. 1 seed Duke, posted 21 points and 13 rebounds in the overtime win over Texas, and was named Atlanta Regional MVP as LSU reached the Final Four.
Fourth overall
The Portland Trail Blazers drafted him fourth overall in 2006 and traded him to Chicago on draft night. He made the NBA All-Rookie Team, competed in the 2007 Slam Dunk Contest and played eight NBA seasons with the Bulls, Bobcats and Grizzlies.
The builder
Tyrus founded The Recruiting Assist so the next late bloomer has one page that tells their whole story: a recruiting profile, athlete website, digital resume and NIL page in one link, with a school finder, a college coach directory and an inbox behind it. Butler Performance built it with him, that build is where this partnership started, and The Recruiting Assist is now a Butler Performance platform.
One company
Tyrus is a Partner at Butler Performance and leads its Baton Rouge home base. One mindset, one mission, one movement: we help growing businesses identify what is slowing them down, design what needs to change, and build the systems, products, and solutions that move them forward. Tyrus works with clients nationwide, many of them from a network built at LSU and over eight NBA seasons: he learns how the business actually runs, scopes the work with you, and stays on as your partner after launch. The same team builds every project, in Rome, Baton Rouge or anywhere else, to the same standard, and every client gets treated like a teammate.
Want to work with Tyrus? Start a project. Every inquiry reaches both partners.
The partnership, in full.
Let's build something better.
Tell us what's slowing the business down. We'll tell you what we'd build to fix it.